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Former Campbell Standout Shares Stories From Stanford

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Matt Masifilo needs only to observe his coaches at Stanford University to remind himself of the difference between high school football and major college football.

“I could come in (the Stanford football facility) at 5 a.m. on a Sunday, and they’d still be there game planning,“said Masifilo, a former Campbell standout and currently a sophomore defensive tackle with the Cardinal. “Mentality-wise, it (the difference) is night and day.

“It’s easy to get the edge in high school,” he added. “I would train all year, but it’s different in college. Everyone is working every day.”

With that in mind, Masifilo used last fall - when he was a red-shirt freshman - to adjust to college life and Division I level football. Though he couldn’t play in games, he practiced every day, learning all he could. There also was the matter of switching from offense to defense.

“Getting reps helped me get my technique up to the level it is at now,” he said. “It was pretty hard last year. I came in and gave it my all and tried to go full speed every day. I put on good weight and got used to playing on the defensive line. I had only played O-line in high school. Playing D-line is a whole new world - especially at the college level. I used last year to watch the older players.”

Masifilo is enjoying a solid season with the Cardinal, having worked himself into the rotation in the trenches. Their traditional regular season-ending game with Cal aside, perhaps no game looms bigger on the Cardinal slate than Saturday’s 2 p.m. game with USC. Lest anyone forget, Stanford defeated USC in 2007 in one of the season’s true upsets. This week in practice, Masifilo expects his team to be especially focused. For his part, he said the daily competition he faces in practice is the best preparation for game day of all.

“We have a four-man rotation (at tackle), so we compete during the week to see who will start (the game),” he said.“We all play about the same amount of snaps. We’ve had that (competitive) mentality all year. We push each other in everything we do - lifting (weights), running (as part of conditioning) ... We’re all great friends.We compete during the week to ensure we’re playing at a high level on Saturday.”

Off the field, Masifilo has found college life in Palo Alto to be “an easy adjustment.” Indeed, he hasn’t been back on the Island since last Christmas, having stayed in Palo Alto to work out with his teammates last summer.

“The lifestyle here is pretty cool. Right across the highway, we have the third largest concentration of Polynesians in the country, so I don’t have to go far for food.”

Masifilo is also buoyed to have many relatives living in the area, including his grandmother.“I love her cooking,” he said, adding that roast pig is his meal of choice.

Masifilo has added 20 pounds of bulk since his playing days at Campbell, in hopes of feasting on upcoming Stanford opponents. Time in the weight room always has been time well-spent for Masifilo, who tried to follow the example of cousin David Veikune, a former Campbell star who took his talents to University of Hawaii. Before Masifilo signed with Stanford in 2006, Veikune had been the last Campbell player to receive a Division I scholarship.

“He was a senior when I was a freshman, and I always looked up to him,” Masifilo said. “In high school, I focused on school and football pretty much. I didn’t have much else going on. Football is what I did, and I loved doing it.”

His dedicated workmanlike approach to football and school may be ideally suited in a program headed by Jim Harbaugh. The former longtime NFL quarterback seems to have enough energy for all of his players combined.As a college player at Michigan, Harbaugh once promised the media a win over rival Ohio State and then went out and delivered.

“He’s an amazing coach,“Masifilo said. “He keeps the energy high at all times, and he tells it like it is.”

Neither Masifilo nor Harbaugh are exempt from the heartbreak that sometimes accompanies football Saturdays, however. A 24-21 loss to UCLA Oct. 18 lingered well into the Cardinal bye week before they returned to action with a 58-0 thrashing of Washington State.

“Losing to UCLA in the last seconds was one of the worst feelings of my life,” he admitted. “It didn’t sit well for a few days. The whole team wanted to practice the next day.”